21 months

Today my little man turns 21 months... only three months left till we hit the big 2! He has grown and learned so much since I last posted at 18 months. He talks up a storm now, eats a ton of food, and has definite opinions about things in his environment and in his every day life. He loves the hulk, Veggitales, rough housing with Daddy, Pappy, and his doggy. He's an energetic child who loves to explore and figure things out. He loves to try new things and go new places, and he loves to do things on his own. I wrote in paragraph form when I posted his 18 month post, but I feel like list is so much easier so this time I'm going to write in a list... it's so much easier to glean information from when I finally get around to doing his yearly baby books... I am starting to feel like this blog should count as his baby book :)

All about our little man...

- Will talks all. the. time now. He repeats everything we say (good and bad) and uses language to communicate his wants and needs now. He is putting two words together now, but no sentences yet. Some of his new favorite words are snuggle (which is my new favorite word also), burp, gas, his friends names, my friend Mindy's name (he loves you Mindy!!), football, touchdown, oh geez, elbow, tucka, love you, and banana. He has also been know to say please and thank you on occasion. He also knows his name now and will proudly tell you his name is Will or will point to himself when I say his name. I'm working on teaching him my name and Aaron's name in case something would happen and he'd get lost he'd be able to tell someone his parents' names.

- He knows all his body parts and will name or point to them when asked... he even knows elbow, knees, chin, cheek, back, and thumb! But I think his favorite part is his belly button.

-He loves hanging out with his friends and will ask for them by name while we are at home. He also gets really excited to go visit people and recognizes his friends houses now... and even their pets.

- He listens pretty well and does pretty good in public. We've had some tantrums and have started timeouts with him and the timeouts seem to be working for behavior issues.

- We are working on ABC's and 123's and he is able to recognize several letters of the alphabet, and can even place them correctly into the alphabet song when I sing it to him. He is also identifying shapes and some colors.

- He still loves loves loves to read and will sit forever on my lap while I read to him, and is always asking for just one more book before naps and bedtime.

- He eats everything in sight! Some days he eats more than I do, and he's had some major growth spurts that have put him in size 2T shirts, 18-24 pants, and 2T pj's... although he is fast approaching 3T pj's and 2T pants *sigh*

- He loves to do puzzles and can do his board puzzles himself now without assistance. He loves to walk everywhere and is learning how to stay on the sidewalk and not dart into the street (this is going to be an ongoing learning process I'm sure). He loves people... anyone that will talk to him or help him get to something he wants to get too is his new best friend. We were in Homedepot one morning and he wanted to walk but refused to hold my hand... but when the woman who was helping us offered her hand to hold he took it readily and walked across the store with her to our destination... and then later in the trip gave several workers high 5's upon exiting the building (I think it's safe to nickname him Mr. Social). That kid is constantly haming it up for people in public.

- He has started having preferences in food, clothes, toys, pretty much everything. He has to choose his own snack, and on some occasions he wants to choose his own clothes as well... one morning the only way I could get him out the door was to change him into his motorcycle shirt because he wouldn't stop yelling "bike bike!". He even has preferences about the music we listen to in the car.

- Will can associate very well and differentiate between things. He pointed to the material on Aaron's backpack a few weeks ago and said "ball". It turns out there is a small part of the bag that is made with basketball material and he recognized that. He can also recognize that a bird is a bird or a dog is a dog even when they look completely different than the last one he's seen.

- He has learned how to manipulate... especially when it comes to Mama... he knows that I LOVE to snuggle with him, and he knows I love when he says the word, so in order to try and stay up longer at night he'll ask for more snuggles with me because he knows I can't resist and will rock with him longer (Seriously, who wouldn't melt if their child asked to snuggle with them??... he's just so darn cute!).

- He still climbs, runs, jumps like before, he just does those things better than the last time I wrote. He now jumps and lands on two feet, can catch a ball, and just generally has more control over his little body.

- He still likes to use his potty and has been peeing on it occasionally but nothing regular or worthy of considering potty training.

- I know I mentioned this in the speaking section... but he now says Love you to us!! When saying good night or bye bye he will sometimes throw in a love you with his hug and kiss to you (melt my heart another time!!).

I'm sure I've forgotten things that are important, but this is all I can think of right now for my little man... I just can't believe time is moving so fast! He's going to be 2 years old in just three short months. It honestly feels like yesterday we were planning his 1st birthday party and now we're planning his second. Next it's going to be big boy beds and potty training and preschool and a little brother or sister (don't worry folks, it's not happening anytime soon). But for now Aaron and I will enjoy our little bundle and all the kisses and cuddles he gives because he's only this little once!!

Here's my little man driving his race car this afternoon